Interested in purchasing a Beneteau Oceanis 40 to 45. Currently working in Abu Dhabi and hope to live on the boat. Any comments about this boat or suggestions regarding other boats that I should consider is greatly appreciated. Besides a place to live my wife and I will use the boat to sail along the coast of UAE and Oman and explore the many islands.

Beneteaus represent excellent 'bang for the buck' Sail well, good storage for the sail things, good acommodation. Not as strongly built as the semi-custon cruisers but adequate for most purposes. I sail in on the US east coast and in the Caribbean and in the last 6 ys and 15,000 miles, except for the odd hurricane, I have not been through anything that a Benateau Oceanis could not handle. (In the four hurricanes I was tied up in th mangroves so the Beneteau would have been fine)

They're good boats, I think you'll be fine with one. We're on our fourth and all have been good values, great to sail and very comfortable. In the used market the 411, 423, 461 and 473 should fit your needs. New the 43 or 46 would do you well. We have the 43 and it has a very roomy salon but lacks the extra storage in the cabins the 46 has. Both sail very well and will let you see 8 to 9 kts of speed on a regular basis. The 40 is a smaller version of the 43 but only has one head and lacks some of the storage the 43 has in the galley.

They're good boats, I think you'll be fine with one. We're on our fourth and all have been good values, great to sail and very comfortable. In the used market the 411, 423, 461 and 473 should fit your needs. New the 43 or 46 would do you well. We have the 43 and it has a very roomy salon but lacks the extra storage in the cabins the 46 has. Both sail very well and will let you see 8 to 9 kts of speed on a regular basis. The 40 is a smaller version of the 43 but only has one head and lacks some of the storage the 43 has in the galley.

MJ, sorry to thread hijack but do you have any experience with the 381 or 361? My wife and I are in the market for newish crusing boat in the 80-100k range to operate out of South Florida with ambitions of 6 months in the Caribbean. We've looked at the 361, 381, and the 411. Any opinion?

We had a 361 for 7 1/2 yrs and loved it. It's a great boat, sails well, and comfortable below as well. The separate shower is bigger than what we have in our 43. It has a large aft cabin and good size galley. Numerous ports and hatches provide good ventilation. Huge cockpit locker for storing all your boat goodies. I've single handed her in winds up to 30 kts with zero issues. We've made runs as long as 12 hours and always felt comfortable. I think she'd be a good choice for something in that price range.

I'm not familiar with the 381 but did consider moving to a 411 which is a nice boat with a good reputation. If you have the extra money to buy a 411 versus the 361, all things being equal, I'd go for it. The extra room and overall size of the boat would be nice to have.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. You can always send me a private message if you want to take this off line.
Mike

We looked at a 381, and while pretty, we were really concerned about the lack of storage space, especially in the galley. After seeing the 381, we didn't even bother looking at the 361, which is sort of a squashed version of the 381.

Beneteaus (in general) are great boats that make some compromises that make them very price competitive compared to Catalina.

Here are things that drive me a bit nutty about my era of Beneteau

> Iron keel instead of lead which is starting to rust already
> Not enough zincs...undersized zincs. My boat eats through zincs very quickly...so the diver gets $70 a month from me.
> Interior is usually manufactured surfaces, not a lot of teak...modern looking
> Winches are a bit undersized, and you could stand to have an extra one to manage all the lines
> A bit "over-engineered" but not to the extent of Hunter...the innovations look cool, but at sea sometimes tried/true is better than new/innovative.

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